On Radio:

Heating up the morning commute
Schedule shakeup at local stations gets competitive


By Bill Virgin
SeattlePI.com
December 12, 2007

For talk radio, 2008 would seem to be a nearly ideal situation. On the national level, both major political parties' presidential nominations are up for grabs. In Washington, the normal slate of state-government and congressional races will be further enlivened with a rematch of the hotly contested governor's race.

"We couldn't have asked for anything more," said Rod Arquette, program director for one of Seattle's talk stations, KTTH-AM/770.

Why then have KTTH and competitor KVI-AM/570 made recent moves to drop local hosts, move them out of the prime morning drive slot or add a non-political talk show to the schedule?

KTTH shifted nationally syndicated (and Western Washington native) Glenn Beck to morning-drive time, replacing the local show hosted by David Boze and Dan Sytman. KVI, meanwhile, remains local in morning drive with Kirby Wilbur. Boze now hosts a solo show in afternoons. Sytman is no longer with KTTH.

KVI, meanwhile, snagged the Dr. Laura Schlessinger advice show from another local station that had been carrying it, and placed it at 9 a.m. weekdays. That move supplanted the John Carlson/Ken Schram-hosted "The Commentators," a local show that is now on 3-6 p.m. weekdays.

The station dropped local host Bryan Suits, who has since been doing some fill-in work for a Los Angles talk station.

Arquette said moving Beck, who was added to KTTH's line-up in June, means it can run the program live. "It just makes for a better show so his content is not dated by the time people hear it," he said.

Arquette doesn't believe KTTH will be hurt by losing its local presence in the morning drive. "We just transfer that inventory to afternoon," he said.

Dennis Kelly, AM group program director for Fisher Radio in Seattle, said the changes at KVI were driven by several factors. One was the appeal of Dr. Laura, whose views, he said, are a good fit with the KVI audience. "We have found in our research she has a really loyal audience that had no idea she was on the air here," he said.

Putting her show on in the 9 a.m.-noon slot was also an acknowledgement, he added, that the issues and politics-talk market in that time slot is crowded in Seattle, with not just Rush Limbaugh on KTTH but also Dave Ross on KIRO-AM/710 and "Weekday" on KUOW-FM/94.9.

"We tried to do the same thing the other stations are doing" in that slot, he said. "We never hit a home run, or even a triple. It's time to do something completely different." The afternoon slot to which "The Commentators" moved is "a little less competitive," he added. "No disrespect to the guys doing afternoon drive on other stations, but they're not Dave Ross or Rush Limbaugh."

Kelly said the moves don't signify a fundamental change for talk radio, which he said is "still the most popular format in America. ... Stations have to find a great balancing act between keeping existing listeners and attracting new ones," he said. "That's not easy."

In other radio notes:


The Metropolitan Opera performs Gounod's "Romeo et Juliette" at 10 a.m. Saturday on KING-FM/98.1.


KISW-FM/99.9 said it has signed a five-year contract extension with the cast of "The Men's Room," Miles Montgomery, Steve Hill, Ted Smith and Ben Watts. The show is heard 2-6 p.m. weekdays.


Don Riggs' guests on "Introspect Northwest" at 6 a.m. Sunday on KMPS-FM/94.1 and 9 a.m. Sunday on KPTK-AM/ 1090 include Seattle attorney Bill Marler discussing food-safety lawsuits.


Jim Wilke's "Jazz Northwest" at 1 p.m. Sunday on KPLU-FM/88.5 includes performances by the Brent Jensen-John Stowell Quartet, the Hadley Caliman Quintet with Thomas Marriott and Jay Thomas' Collateral Damage Big Band.


The Sunday edition of Jim French's "Imagination Theatre," at 8 p.m. Saturday and Sunday on KIXI-AM/880, includes a new Harry Nile adventure.

--------------

P-I reporter Bill Virgin can be reached at 206-448-8319 or billvirgin@seattlepi.com.

© 1998-2007 Seattle Post-Intelligencer